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Exclusive! Kirna Zabête's New Collection of Pretty Summer Dresses for Every Budget

For Beth Buccini and Sarah Easley, founders of chic SoHo shopping outpost Kirna Zabête, it all started with a relatively common refrain. What to wear? “Last summer I had all these events: some amazing, like our friends’ gay wedding brunch, market appointments in Paris, touring Italy with my family, and then some mundane, like dropping off my kids at day camp and grocery store runs,” says Buccini. "My favorite uniform is a dress, and I was just as guilty as everyone else last summer of wearing my cutoffs nonstop. Even though I own a store, I just felt like I didn’t have the proper wardrobe for everything I needed to do daily.” The solution? When all else fails, do it yourself! Easley and Buccini have just unveiled a smattering of ten fun, flattering summer frocks with Gilt.com (available online starting May 29) that are named for every possible warm-weather occasion, from “Meetings on Monday” to a “Montauk Bonfire” and everything in between (“Gelato in the Square,” anybody?). “I think these silhouettes and prints have been forming in our minds for years,” says Easley. “It was actually hard to stop at ten styles!"

The frocks vary in length and silhouette, but all share a sense of whimsy familiar to those who regularly shop at the duo’s store, where Valentino and Alaïa designs hang near neon signs recommending shoppers to “be a unicorn,” among other sage life advice. “In summer you can get away with more,” says Buccini, “more color, more print, more fun,” and all feature bold prints: geometrical on a shirtdress, tropical on a maxi, psychedelic paisley in a flirty off-the-shoulder confection, scarf print in a bohemian-minded tunic. It’s all very vacation packing made totally, brilliantly brainless. Which is, according to Easley, entirely the point: "One easy piece and then accessorize, that’s how we like to dress for summer,” says the retailer-cum-designer. “I usually like to debut a new dress for something special, and then I challenge myself to see how many ways and places I can wear it: I say it’s the French way! A great dress withstands the test of time and makes memories.” And making memories has never been quite so easy on the wallet: The dresses range in price from $295 to $595. "We wanted to have clothes that you could just pack up and enjoy and not have to worry about being too precious with them,” says Buccini. Adds Easley, “So hopefully you are less careful wearing it and have more fun!” Meet your new summer wardrobe.